SteveMM

My father was in a similar situation as the OP many years ago when I stupidly decided to leave Scouting as a Life Scout. My brother had already Eagled and aged out, but my father didn't feel like his Scouting days were done. He was, as I recall, a very good Scoutmaster. He ended up staying involved by becoming a Woodbadge trainer and assisting our local troop when he could.

We didn't have that situation with APL, but our SM did at one point use the role of Assistant Quartermaster and counted it as a leadership position. Part of the reason was that he knew the elected Quartermaster would miss a number of meetings and campouts. The assistant ended up doing more than the Quartermaster. For the "project" he asked the assistant to do a full review of all of the gear, remove damaged goods, and put together a spreadsheet of what was in good shape. It's something the Quartermaster should probably do anyhow.

Update: Heart of Virginia Council sent out a note yesterday that said their plan, mentioned in my earlier post, has been rejected by the county health department. Unless they can find a way around it, there will be no camp whatsoever this year.

Heart of Virginia Council announced on Friday that Camp T. Brady Saunders will not hold normal camp programs this summer. Instead, they are making campsites available to troops to "rent" out for one to 14 days at a time during the summer. Program areas such as shooting, STEM, etc. will be staffed for an additional per-troop fee. The dining hall will not operate. Our troop is evaluating the options, but probably will not camp there this summer.

Camp T. Brady Saunders in the Heart of Virginia Council already delayed the camp start date to July 5, which basically gave them more time to decide if they want to cancel. I don't see it happening this year.

Heart of Virginia Council just announced they're cancelling their Cub Scout multi-day camp options for this summer. As of right now, they still are hoping to hold the Boy Scout summer camp. Here's what they said about the BSA camp. I just don't see it happening. We are currently working with our Council Program Committee, Risk Management Committee, and Camping Committee to modify our Scouts BSA program at Camp T. Brady Saunders to meet the health guidelines expected by the state. This will include social distancing and changing the way many of our traditions and merit badge station have been done. We do not know what this summer will look like yet, but we are preparing different options based on the CDC and Governors Executive Orders.

Very good points that I will store away for my case to our troop. Perhaps a mix of the type of things you're suggesting for breakfast and lunch, and full-on freeze dried meals for dinner, might be the way to go.

Our troop in Virginia is still planning to go to summer camp starting on July 5, but I'm against it and have my doubts it will happen anyhow. I'm planning to suggest to the troop something like what your troop is doing. For meals, I'm going to suggest we go full freeze dried. It cuts WAY down on food prep and handling, and one person can be in charge of cooking for each patrol. Obviously, the person in charge of cooking will be required to wear a mask and gloves, but there's really no reason they'll need to touch the food.

My daughter is about to age out of Girl Scouts, so we still get notifications from their local council here in Central Virginia. They just announced that they are closing down their local camp activities for the summer. They don't do a full week-long overnight camp like Boy Scouts, but they do a week-long evening camp. Because it's just an evening camp, they don't have to deal with things like meals.

Heart of Virginia Council in Virginia just announced they're opening camp on July 5. Our troop was supposed to go in the last week of June, but supposedly the camp will accommodate us. Our SM wants to go July 5-11. Without some kind of specifics on how they're going to handle things like meals (our dining hall, like most, is packed to the gills at mealtime) I'm not sure I can commit one way or another. The council said they're implementing the following: • Developing pre-travel protocols • Pre-arrival screening • Extensive on-site screening • Increased cleaning and sanitization in shared spaces, buildings, vehicles, and program areas • Large gatherings, Merit Badges and programs that cannot accommodate social distancing, campfires and chapel services, will be limited or eliminated • Adjustments in our dining hall operations • Any participant or staff member in a high-risk category for protection from COVID-19 should not attend summer camp this year, because of established protocols by our country’s medical experts. • Additional measures will be implemented per CDC guidelines.

We do actually use the left-hand shake in our troop, but usually only at the end of a BoR or when handing out merit badges and awards at a CoH. To the original point of the post, though, I think things like handshakes are, for many people, gone for good. I was having a discussion with a friend of mine just the other day about this. There will likely be a segment of the population that still does it, but after months of not touching anyone who doesn't live in your house, it's going to seem very, very weird to shake hands and I suspect a lot of people will just stop doing it.

Great information. Those breakout rooms may come in very handy. We plan to do patrol meetings weekly, rather than trying to have the whole troop on at once. With the breakout rooms, we could start with the Pledge and Scout Law or Oath with the whole troop, and then send each patrol off to do their things. I like it.

After some discussion, our troop decided to go with Zoom. The troop is going to pay for a couple of months of a basic license, so we don't have to deal with time limits. If the shutdown goes beyond a couple of months, I and a few other parents have said we'd each donate another month.

My son (who is SPL) and I have been investigating options, and I'm planning to have him test them out. Right now, I'm thinking Skype could be the answer. Their free option allows four-hour calls with up to 100 people. That solves any meeting length issue. I've never liked Skype, but it's pretty flexible. I'll report back after my son has tested it with a couple of boys from the troop.

Our troop is trying to get online meetings set up starting next week. Zoom is one possibility, but the free version only allows 40 minute meetings. Google Hangouts is another we're looking into. What's everyone else planning to use?